Wilderness Survival Priority 4: Fire

Building a fire is the fourth priority in any wilderness survival situation

Fires are hugely important. They keep can you warm, dry out wet clothes, melt snow for water (or purify spring water), signal rescuers, heat food or drinks (which helps keep you warm), and just as importantly they can make you feel better. Remember: keeping up your spirits is a survival technique.

Fire buildings rules

Make a fire circle of stones and build a fire.

Dry, dead wood burns much better than than wet or living wood. (If it is wet out, you'll find relatively dryer stuff near the base of trees.) Tag-tem healthy members of the group to collect wood so that no one stays too long away from the warmth. Try to collect enough wood to last all night before it gets dark.

Keep the fire modestly-sized—large enough to work as a warming/drying/signaling device, but no so huge you use up all your wood.

You will need three things to burn:

• Tinder (small, easily burnable material to start the fire).
• Kindling (twigs and sticks no thicker than a pencil to get the fire going).
• Fuel (larger pieces of wood to keep the fire going and provide coals—useful for cooking and restarting a fire that has flamed out).

Teepee-style fires tend to be easiest, both to build and to light in the wind. Simply put a small pile of tinder down, surround it with a teepee of small kindling, then a layer of larger kindling, then layers of progressively larger sticks. Leave a gap through which to light the tinder. Presto: fire.

Starting a fire

Your 10 essentials kit should have three fire-starting methods in it (lighter in a plastic baggies, waterproof matches, flint-and-steel), plus some tinder (dryer lint or a short length of frayable twine).

Good sources of natural tinder:

• Tree bark (especially birch, or the inner bark of cedar, elm, or cottonwood).
• Dry grass.
• Wood shavings.
• (For the record: Leaves make terrible tinder.)

The three important fire-starting methods to bring

1. Lighter
2. Waterproof matches
3. Flint and steel

OK, macho wilderness skills aside, the single best way to start a fire in the woods is with a plain old lighter. It is not cheating to use a Bic.

Still, always carry at least three methods of starting a fire—just in case the lighter fails (you could lose it, or lose the flint out of it, or it could simply run out of lighter fluid).

The best back-up method is waterproof matches (you can buy fancy ones from camping stores—or just melt some candle wax and dip the heads of regular kitchen matches in the wax to waterproof them). Carry them in a waterproof container—and don't forget to bring along a striking surface! (Lighting matches on beard scruff only works in old westerns).

The third best back-up is the good old flint-and-steel. You don't even have to keep it dry. These days, strick-starter fire kits are not alwasy made of actual flint and steel but of any two elements that make a a spark when banged together. Camping stores like REI sell a bunch of options; pick your poison. Still, it's a pain starting a fire with sparks rather than the open flame of a lighter or match; you'll need good, dry tinder and plenty of practice. (So bring it and try it on the next trip.)

The three famous-but-pointless fire-starting methods

• "Rubbing two sticks together" is a pain in the @#$%. It takes a long time to build a proper fire wooden fire drill, and an even longer time to master making one work.
  
  (For the record: you don't actually "rub two sticks." You make a kind of bow using one stick; wrap the "bowstring" around a second stick called the spindle—sharpened at one end and made of a dry hardwood; put the spindle, point first, into a hollowed-out depression in a fireboard—a larger stick or flat log made of dry softwood; also put into that depression a bit of the finest tinder you can muster; hold the top of the spindle with a block so you don't bore a hold through your hand; then use your other hand to saw the bow back and forth for, like, an hour, causing the spindle to rotate back and forth like a drill. As it does, it's end will slowly get hot enough to turn into a tiny glowing ember of a coal. Hold that ember against the tinder and gently blow on it to catch the tinder on fire. Then move the tinder quickly into the prepared fire. That's the theory, anyway. Ask Stew or Reid some time how well it actually works.)
• While a large magnifying glass can, indeed, start a fire on a bright sunny day, it's useless at night, and it has to be a big glass, one worthy of Sherlock Holmes; that tiny magnifying glass on the pocket knife is nowhere near powerful enough.
• Finally: Yes, putting a 9-volt battery against steel wool will cause the filaments of the steel wool to burn. It looks cool, and if you act fast, you can actually use the burning filaments to start some tinder on fire. We've done it before for fun, but it's really more of a camping parlor trick. I mean, honestly: who packs steel wool or a 9-volt battery to go camping? You're much better off simply bringing a lighter and some matches.

Related pages

• The 7 wilderness survival priorities
• Wilderness first aid
• The 10 essentials
• Packing lists
• Leave No Trace principals
• Useful links (including where to get gear)
• Troop calendar (upcoming trips)
• The trips program